SOLIDWORKS Tips You Should Know – for January

Here are some SOLIDWORKS tips from our Application Engineers:

1. “Lock rotation on ALL concentric mates by right-clicking the Mates folder in the design tree and selecting Lock Concentric Rotation.”

– Catherine Wagner – Albany, NY

2. “A great way to double-check your component properties while in an assembly is with Assembly Visualization; add the property columns you want to look at and, if you’re missing anything, adding the information will push back to the component.”

– Garrett Matheron, Buffalo, NY

3. “Ctrl-select a second face when using Normal To and SOLIDWORKS will attempt to point the second face upwards.”

– Dave Murray, Syracuse, NY

4. “Convert Entities: A lot of people forget this shortcut tool exists. Use it to convert edges or the borders of a face into a fully-defined sketch onto whichever plan you’re sketching on.”

– Rich Lawrence, Syracuse, NY

5. “Perspectiveviews are dependent on the viewer’s vantage point. While in perspective mode, Go to Tools > Modify > Perspective; to adjust.”

– Kevin Holbrook, Rochester, NY

6. “When in an assembly, while selecting a face, hold down the ALT key and hover the part over another face. This makes a coincident smart mate.”